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Blog Posts: international climate policy

The Paris Climate Agreement will only take effect once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions formally join it. Recent action from Cameroon, Brazil, Iran and Ukraine make it more likely that will happen this year.

Prime Minister Modi and President Obama have put themselves in the vanguard of global climate policy, not because of any immediate political pressure, but because both leaders see action on this front as crucial for future generations’ health and prosperity.

The United States and India have either created or ramped up 15 bilateral programs on climate change and clean energy over the past two years. The state visit next week is an opportunity to further advance the countries' collaboration in three areas.

Climate negotiations have shifted from what the Paris Agreement is to how it will be accomplished. The Bonn climate talks were the first opportunity to develop the rules and tools needed to truly put the Agreement into action.

Now that 195 countries have adopted the Paris Agreement, they must develop the rules, processes and guidelines for how it will deliver the goals it's promised. New WRI research provides a to-do list for negotiators.

This week, the newly created Ad hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA), which consists of all 196 Parties to the UNFCCC, is meeting for the first time in Bonn, Germany. The Paris Agreement established the principles and framework of the new international climate regime, and over the coming years the APA must work out the crucial details that will make this framework a reality.

With record-breaking temperatures year after year and escalating extreme weather and climate impacts, the need for adaptation has long been apparent. Now it's finally moving beyond urgency into real action on the ground.

Two weeks ago, more than 175 nations signed the Paris Agreement, making it the most-signed international treaty in a single day. Dozens of initiatives outside the UNFCCC process stand ready to help countries deliver the Agreement's goals.